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Thursday, January 6, 2011

I made these terrific little cookies. And shhh! They don't use any butter, margarine, oil or shortening. I thought there was a problem with the recipe, but I made them anyway. And.... they are fabulous! They were a little different to work with, but they are just awesome! And so GOOD FOR YOU!

I've always wanted to make my own homemade sandwich bread. (My picture quality is terrible but the bread is just PERFECT!) I have searched and searched for the perfect recipe for everyday sandwich bread and always the bread I make is either too heavy, too moist, or too MUCH! But, I made one this weekend that is so perfect. I don't know if this works the "old fashioned" way. I have a bread machine and so since the directions said to use a bread machine, that is what I did. However, I only use my bread machine for making the dough. After the dough setting completes, I take it from there and bake it in a regular loaf pan in the real oven.

Its great! Very soft! In fact, I let it cool completely and still had to slice it with an electric knife. Picture trying to slice a loaf of Wonder Bread with a knife. That's what I'm talking about!

Here's the recipe with exact instructions on how I did it. Worked like a charm and we had this for our favorite, peanut butter and apricot preserve sandwiches. Yum!

Follow the directions exactly. It is terrific. You will never have to buy bread again.

• In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure the very warm water (1 cup), stir in yeast and sugar. Set a timer for 10 minutes. It will start bubbling and at the end of 10 minutes, will look like a big glass of root beer with a tall soft, frothy foam on top. Add the oil and then dump in the pan of the bread machine.

• Next add your flour and top with the salt. (I realize your bread machine may say to do this in a different order, but do it this way and you will have a perfect loaf.)

• Set your bread machine to the dough setting.

• And the end of this cycle (when it is "ready"), then dump the dough on a floured surface (I use a dinner plate with a little flour dumped on there). Knead with floured hands a couple of times - like 5 times. Form into a loaf. Spray or grease your loaf pan. Place dough inside. I then sprayed my loaf with Pam to it didn't dry out. Let rise 1 hour or until it rises up out of the loaf pan by an inch or so.

• Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. (check at 20 minutes).

• Let it sit in the pan about 5 minutes. Then, carefully (because the loaf is so soft) take it out of the pan and let it cool on a cooling rack. Let it cool completely and then slice using an electric knife or large surrogated knife.

It makes great sandwiches, grilled cheese, peanut butter. Probably would make great hamburger and hotdog buns as well.

I can never seem to make a menu plan as a "plan". So, I decided I would make a menu journal. Then, next January I can at least see what we had this January. We have daughter #1 living at home with us right now (she moved home over the summer),so between she and Big Daddy, its nearly impossible to please them both by cooking the same thing. Sometimes, I end up making a combination dinner. That means I take one meat and cook it two ways, suiting both of them. Daughter #2 and I are more flexible. We like pretty much everything. But,then with that being said, we don't like repetitive meals (like hubby and daughter #1), so I probably do way more cooking than most folks. But, we're happy and that's all that matters, right?

About Me

I am mom to two beautiful young ladies, now almost all grown up! I married my high school sweetheart and we couldn't be happier! I love to find ways to do it all myself, whether its making a bar of soap or a biscuit. My kids think I've lost it, but I just like doing it "At Home My Way."